After our rally, ponies spread out in every direction. We flooded down the streets broken by dead grass, taking in the sights of decaying Ponyville. We were greeted with the crumbling clay and earthen walls accented with dusty pink, purple and red wood. Some roofs were caved in, the rest were covered in rotten thatch.

The glass windows in every state solemnly watched our homecoming parade. We didn’t see any dragons or hellspawn in the sky like we were warned about. Their patrols apparently left after they heard us. Instead, we were in a ghost town. Except, we were the ghosts and instead of haunting it, we were going to convert it.

Any building with a standing roof became a point of fortification. Any building with a collapsed roof became a potential tower to attack from. Excess materials and supplies were dragged out into the streets where they were organized and moved back as ponies continued moving forward. The group we were with halted before town square. Town hall lay in the center of it; the collapsed heart of Ponyville. There, with the narrower streets leading back to the portal and the open square in front of us, we dug into the dead earth.

Ponies scavenged shovels, metal tools, rods and everything else but the majority of earth ponies just used flat rocks or our hooves. Our holes became connected as we dug deeper, creating trenches and dirt ramparts across the streets.

Around us, pegasi watched for monsters and continued scavenging and reporting to our leaders what they found. Earlier, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor gave a crash course in whatever they could teach the unicorns about magic. An hour later I still heard unicorns collaborating and trying to learn from each other. From being around so many unicorns relearning telekinesis, and how much magic I had been exposed to, I think I understood how telekinesis worked. Listening to them talk to each other now though, it sounded like there were as many ways to understand magic as there were unicorns.

“Remember it’s to protect someone you love. Every time you wrap your magic around someone, feel their blood, their life, and put your courage and honor around it. That’ll make it hold,” our graceful leader espoused as she demonstrated her shield on another of her blankflank stallion friends. The one thing they all had in common with her to show their shared past was the dog tags around each of their necks.

“I love you too, Sarge,” I heard her stallion flirt back.

“I know it. You left your pregnant wife to follow my white ass back into war!” There was rowdy laughter and cheers of
‘oorah’ from the group.

“What can I say? It’s a nice ass!”

“Oorah!” erupted again followed by more laughter.

“Hold still,” my favorite little voice said, perking my ears among the chatter.

“Rubes?” I heard Comet Tail respond from behind me. I looked up from the ramparts I was packing down in time to see my Pinchy had wrapped him in a soft glow. Then the sweet glow of her horn stopped and the faint aura around him continued. Comet seemed to inspect the glow on his own leg.

“Ooo~,” Minnie commented and felt his coat.

“Fleur?” my daughter addressed the sergeant. Fleur De Lis immediately stopped carrying on with her comrades and turned to my daughter. Her ‘men’ seemed to also fall in line now that she was acting serious. My daughter didn’t hesitate to share her idea with the Marines.

“I figured, if you weaved a little light into it, you could keep the ‘blanket’ glowing,” my brilliant daughter explained, gesturing to Comet Tail and what she did. The elegant unicorn shook her light pink mane out of her eyes to study Comet Tail closer for a moment.

“Hm. It’s pretty but it makes him a bit of a target, don’t you think?” she commented on the display.

“Yeah but this way it makes it easier to tell when it goes out so you can recast it.”

An easy smile grew across the sergeant’s slender muzzle at this and she nodded approvingly.

“I just might steal that.”

Ponies were dragging the last of the furniture out of a house and one of them dropped a tabletop that slid off their back. Minuette was quick to help but was caught up in the design of it. I could see her studying the bottom of it from my vantage point.

“Berry, how’s that spot?” Carrot Top asked from above me. I looked up and saw she had got out to help another trench then back at the dirt I had been patting down. I climbed out and followed but caught the last of the conversation.

“...even the fence posts are carved and signed!” I heard Minuette gush.

“Yeah, we had a lot of free time I guess…”

“No, we were passionate!"

“So what are you saying? Don’t take stuff apart?”

“No, it’s fine. Just appreciate it. The passion! Everything was made by someone who wanted to make it. All of the hearts! Look how vibrant the remaining paint is! Even the shutters have carvings! Remember them so we can make more!”

I felt a smile on my face as Carrot and I helped some unicorns unearth some cobblestone for ‘ammunition’. I slowed down a bit more to take in the storefront we were in front of:

The double dutch doors, the open floor plan, the flower beds and broken pots lying nearby. I think this one was a flower shop.

“Uuuh... I don’t think my memory’s that great,” one of the ponies responded to Minuette.

“It’ll look different, just remember all the love put into it when reconstruction starts!”

“When does that happen? I haven’t seen any…”

The pony’s voice died as the happy kaleidoscopic sky above us was washed out in a sea of red, tinting the world below.

“Monsters! 10 o’clock!” shouted Blossomforth from high above. We all looked up and she and Cloud Kicker made a dive down for Fleur.

“...Me and my big mouth.”

A chorus of tearing metal echoed through the sky. Ponies covered their ears and shrieked when they looked in the direction it came from. We could make them out now on the horizon and they seemed to multiply as they came towards us. The wiggling, almost shimmering swarm was a stain against the red sky.

“My po-niiies!” Fleur-De-Lis screamed so gruff and loud she must have strained her voice. It had the right effect. “Get off the roofs! On me! Form a line! Form. A. Line!”

I saw the sergeant move to the most forward trench. Everypony around us dropped whatever they were doing and rushed to join her. Carrot and I found the rest of our friends a few rows back on the front line. I held my Pinchy close and she held onto me.

“Uni-corns! Cast your buffs!” Fleur called for our attention even as the monsters got larger. I saw my daughter’s horn glow and felt magic wrap around me. When it stopped there was still a dim white glow on me that numbed my sense of touch. My daughter started casting the spell again: this time on herself. Unicorns all over lit their horns and seemed to be doing similar things.

“We’ll charge together! We go on my command!” Fleur ordered. Her voice was carrying in the still air. “Unicorns and Marines: we aim high and neutralize! Earth ponies: we attack low!”

I saw a Marine nearby ready his rifle on unsteady magic. We were so quiet I could hear the safety click.

Then that horrible shriek spread through the air again. Ponies stirred and covered their ears but didn’t run, even with them moving straight at us. The sickly white monsters looked like a mess of too many tentacles, barbs and wings. I didn’t like how big they were getting.

“Pegasi: move out! Draw their attention! Bring them down one hundred yards ahead of us! Channel them low and over us. We’re going to take away their flight advantage! Go! Go!” Fleur shouted.

I saw Cloud take off with Blossomforth and several others began following after towards the oncoming swarm. I saw most of the swarm correct their direction towards the bravest ponies meeting them halfway.

“Unicorns! When I say ‘Fireworks’ you blind them with everything you got!” Fleur commanded.

“Sergeant! They have no eyes!” a Marine with a pair of binoculars reported.

“Be bucking bright then!” Fleur shouted.

The Marines called back an ‘oorah!’.

“Earth ponies, hold!” Fleur called as the pegasi caught the aggression and attention of the wave and were now rushing back towards us with them on their tails. Six houses away, I could see the fear in the pegasi’s eyes. “We charge on my order! Attack in groups! Keep your ponies next to you!”

A wave of scared pegasi came directly at us. The squid-fly-snakes propelled by wings and madness followed a few houses behind them. When the pegasi flew over, the wind brought a pungent rot in the air.

“Eyes down! Fireworks! Fireworks!” Fleur commanded. Ponies, eager to get something between them and the nightmares, lit up the air.

I saw streams of light fire out of horns. There were arching fountains of iris-scratching sparks, volleys exploding into colorful, fizzing bursts and seizure-inducing flashes. I screwed my eyes and ears shut from the deafening nails-on-chalkboard screech the things made.

“Fire! Fire! Our vixen commander ordered. A gatling of beams and bullets flew. I saw a wall of scorch marks and squibs splatter across the abominations.

They slowed at the assault but didn’t stop charging. I could make out their beaks drooling. Their tentacles were flailing blindly for us.

Over the sound of the firing came another order. “For Equestria! Charge! Charge! Charge!”

Unicorn Sergeant Fleur De Lis, with her rifle firing and her horn carving straight into the enemy ahead, scaled the trench and became the glowing spearhead into the oncoming horde. Every other earth pony, including me and Carrot Top, followed her. There wasn’t any hesitation to follow her command: behind her, in that moment, felt like the safest place to be.

With the monsters being lasered, battered and shot over our heads, we attacked. The sound was a violent, deafening, head-on collision of harmony and chaos. The magic in the air became twisted wreckage around us.

Senses clashed in the mess. When they came back I was kicking at the barbs and tentacles wrapped around me. Carrot was already bucking the beak of the thing that was holding me into pieces. The creature spazzed and threw me. It gave its death cry as it was riddled with holes and slumped to the ground.

I didn’t have time to understand the pungent sizzling on Carrot Top before another one of those creatures climbed its dead sibling and tried to smother us.

Several large objects and a few stray beams of light met its bare face. As it recoiled, Carrot and I got out of the way. A pony came up on its side and threw the dying creature off its balance. Then another toppled it.

I saw Carrot suddenly drop to the ground and start thrashing on her back like she was trying to get something off.

“It’s burning!” she shouted. By the time she relaxed, the glow she had a second ago like mine had disappeared and she checked her back. There was nothing there but dirt. She looked at me. “Their blood’s acid!” She looked behind me and pointed. “Berry!”

I jumped around in time to get a muzzle-full of pale tentacle. I kicked it away only for two to take its place. I kicked one of those away, spun around in time to feel the other slide up my belly. I tensed and bucked back the violation. Another tendril wrapped around my middle and squeezed the air out of me. The creature raised up and pulled me towards its smacking beak.

Somepony seared a line across its underside and someone else emptied a round into it for good measure. There was more metallic screeching and I was tossed over my friend.

Carrot helped me up. I was more shaken than anything. As she did I saw that white glow reappear on her. We glanced back towards the trenches. Every unicorn horn was doing something. Minuette was launching rocks. I saw my Pinchy fire another beam at something past us. I made eye contact with Comet Tail in time to get a warm, tingling hug and a renewed glow. I smiled before somepony screaming pulled me back into the fight.

Carrot and I ran to assist the pony getting smothered with tentacles and raked against one of the creature’s barbs. Unicorns assisted in violently amputating the offensive appendages and freeing the pony.

By the time we got to her, her friends were helping her up. The stab wound in her side was bleeding and she shakily clung to her friend. I saw one of those shield spells sweep across her but I didn’t know how well it’d stop the bleeding. Her friends rushed her back to the trench.

Carrot and I exchanged a glance. Then she charged to join the closest group of ponies bringing another monster down. I followed.

I grappled a cold, muscular tentacle and it tried to shake me off. Ponies bucked as it screamed at us until it collapsed and ponies climbed and stomped its softer head. The general strategy seemed to be for unicorns to weaken and confuse them and for groups of ponies to overwhelm and finish them.

We continued fighting like that. Unicorns blasted and smashed objects into them and when they were weak and dazed we went in to finish them off. As a wave more than a herd, we crashed into the flying squid-snakes. We learned, from a few mistakes, to stay in groups and avoid their blood and their underside. Once they were down, we learned to go where the brains and eyes should be. Our hooves were coated in their black ichors. Our ears rang with their angry cries. The dust and lingering acid in the air stung our eyes. Our hearts and hooves worked nonstop. Our focus wasn’t to gain ground, it was to hold it.

I stopped to catch my breath behind half a stone wall with a few others. I felt rattled from their angry cries. My legs, especially my rear ones, hurt. I looked at the pony next to me who was covered in somepony else’s blood. The fight was in full swing now. Magic exploded around us. Order was giving away to the chaos of war.

“Sergeant!” a voice shouted from the trenches. I scanned down the street for her. It was easy to spot the white unicorn among all the earth ponies. The model of grace and carnage stopped her rampage to glance back at her defensive line. I looked too.

Monsters were behind the trenches. Pegasi overhead were overwhelmed and lost the creatures’ interest.

“Eyes Behind! Trenches are overwhelmed!” Fleur shouted. She ran back to help. Ponies with her followed.

I did too.

The trenches erupted in magic and exploded with rocks, debris and gunfire. Pegasi swarmed overhead trying to pull the tentacle masses off their friends in the pits. Others were chasing the ones going down the street, back towards the portal.
Monsters kept grabbing and biting into the trench, even as the sticky, mutilated remains of other tentacle spawn were heaved onto the ramparts. Some ponies were trying to escape past the assault, either coughing or crying out if the sizzling blood hit them. Ponies rolled in the dirt. I spotted Carrot Top holding a pony so a Marine could flush his eye with a canteen.

I didn’t immediately spot the rest of my family among those crawling out of the trenches. I galloped to where I saw them last and skidded to a halt in front of one of the remaining abominations. I turned around. I compressed everything low and forward. I ignored the tentacle wrapping around me as I pushed everything I had back and into my hind legs against its trunk. They didn’t have bones but it seized in pain. As it curled up a unicorn had a moment to bring something sharp down through its head. It was pushed off the trench and almost coiled on top of me. I climbed over the dying corpse and into the pit.

“Mom!” my little filly spotted me as soon as I spotted them down the dirt corridor. Minuette and Comet Tail were covering my daughter and the two of them and several others were bathing a part of the trench in something like that shield spell. The tingling, numbing sensation made running the last few feet to them like swimming through lidocaine. I hugged my ponies. They weren’t hurt. They looked banged up but they were alive. My little Pinchy looked like she was going to get sick. She was pushing herself too hard.

The last monster near the trench gave a dying screech. I barely flinched. Between the ringing at the top half of my hearing and my heart pounding at the bottom, it was just more noise.

Carrot dropped down to us and was immediately assaulted by Minuette’s hug.

“There you are! Silly potato,” Minuette teased. Carrot Top hugged and nuzzled her friend back.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Carrot told them.

“Mom, you’re bleeding!” my Pinchy said after she pulled away. She showed me her hoof with my blood on it. I looked at where her hoof touched me. There was a long, shallow scratch down one side. Apparently I barely missed a barb.

“Sorry,” I apologized awkwardly. “It’s just a scratch. I promise.”

“Po-nies!” Fleur shouted. “Clear the embankment! Take defensive positions! The pegasi are bringing another group around. Prepare the fireworks!!”

“...be careful,” my daughter warned me. As rattled as I was, I had to go back out there. Almost numbly, I strained and pulled myself out of the trench. As I did I felt another shield spell wrap over me, numbing me like a protective glove.

Gruelingly, we got back into it. A dozen ponies helped push a bloated corpse off the trench’s fireline. Shields were cast again, with less eagerness this time. Everypony was getting worn down. A third of us were behind the trench now: too exhausted, traumatized or injured to fight. I saw the dogfight over Ponyville had started consolidating again and now pegasi were bringing another herd of monsters our way in a wide arc.

I glanced over at Carrot Top who was dirty and shaking but holding out. Meanwhile, past my own tremor, it felt like the ‘constellations’ on my legs were trying to betray me.

“Beaaaar!” a pegasi on watch cried out above us. She was pointing out towards the edge of town. The sergeant stopped bandaging a pony’s leg to stare up at the call.

“What do you mean ‘bear’??”

In that direction I heard ponies scream in unison before being cut off by a deep grisly roar that shook the air. Then, from the background noise of ponies and war, a heavy rhythmic pounding came to the forefront.

“...well that’s not foreboding,” Fleur muttered hoarsely before raising her posture and her voice. “Po-nies!” She pointed down the street towards the pegasi bringing a dozen more flying squid abominations our way. “Defensive spells! Ready weapons! Ready fireworks!” She threw off her rifle and gathered a twisted, bent flagpole for a makeshift polearm. The rhythmic earthquakes grew so heavy ponies were stumbling now. The windows in the houses around us shook and some shattered. Something titanic was coming.

We saw pegasi darting out from an alleyway followed by another thunderous roar that reverberated through us. “...brace for impact!”

Before the pegasi could bring us the tentacles hot on their tails, a giant blue mountain on four paws tore through the street. It chased down the pegasi that were running from it and crashed straight into the remains of Town Hall. It fell over, flattening the debris in the process. The earth around us shook so hard I heard aftershocks of buildings shift and collapse. While it started climbing back onto all fours I registered it was a translucent bear full of stars; an ursa.

“Fireworks! Fireworks! …Fire!” Fleur called out as the pegasi passed over us, barely going noticed by the ponies in shock.

With a slight delay, unicorns lit up the twilight with a bombardment of sparks, flares and explosions in the face of the tentacles and a few towards the ursa.

The bear didn’t like this.

The air cracked with another roar.

The dazed and confused monsters were assaulted by spells from one side and torn through by the ursa on the other. Five unicorns and a few killing bucks took down a squid. Meanwhile the bear mauled one monster and ripped another in half like it was a gummy worm. Then, coated in the blood of its kills, the bear went after the pegasi buzzing it.

“Blossom, follow me!” Cloud Kicker shouted overhead from somewhere. I didn’t see what they were doing. I was running for my life from a squid-snake that had me in its ‘sights’. I felt the bear running again and by the time I had the thing off of me I heard a building get demolished. It was deafening but everything else was already loud and frantic.

Something rammed into me and I hit the ground.

Lying there dizzy, I figured out the pony on top of me, just as disoriented, got thrown by a tentacle monster. The earth pony who got to fly climbed off of me and I wanted to keep laying there on the ground. My exhaustion was catching up with me. Especially my rear legs; I could feel my heartbeat in them.

“Berry?” Carrot called when she found me. She and a pony with a flower cutie mark, maybe the pony thrown into me, pulled me back onto my hooves.

It sounded like a building demolition was happening on a neighboring street. A frustrated and tired roar joined the noise of destruction. More noise, endless noise.

My legs fumbled but I ran with Carrot Top and somepony else to help more ponies break another Lovecraftian monster into submission. My head felt distant and everything around was viscerally real. Like I couldn’t understand the chaos around me. I bucked a squid then felt my rear legs give out.

“Creatures! From the forest!” somepony overhead shouted.

I watched the fighting in a daze. All the light, movement and noise was beginning to make me feel sick. The world around us was slipping out of control.

Somepony budged me and pulled me along. I clumsily followed. Then at some point in the galloping, I saw everypony had stopped. We were staring at something. Everything briefly came into focus with everypony’s attention drawn to a three-story building collapsing behind me. A mountainous bear full of stars disappeared beneath the rubble. From behind the wreckage, two dusty pegasi rose, hugging each other closely.

Blossomforth had cute freckles. And I saw the telltale signs of a blush when Cloud Kicker kissed her in front of everypony cheering. It took me a moment to register that they had killed the ursa by intentionally leading it through buildings.

“Everypony!” Fleur rasped.

My vision swam until it landed on her. Fleur De Lis had her long flagpole-polearm tucked against one wrapped foreleg and walked with it as the ponies cleared a path. From her stance she looked tireless but her coat glistened with sweat that made her mane stick against her neck and the shallow cuts on her white coat smear. She forced a smile.

“We have a lull in battle! Everypony who took the lead: take the wounded back and call the rear forward! Rest! That is an order. You are not soldiers… even if you make me proud all the same. Dismissed!”

A few ponies didn’t move from the front line. Other, fresher ponies came in to replace the majority that did. I scanned the crowd wondering where everypony was.

“Berry Punch!” somepony shouted. My ears swiveled in their direction and my eyes followed. My vision focused on Minuette standing on her hind legs and waving at me. I smiled back at her and when she saw me coming she fell back onto all fours.

Crossing the moving herd in their direction I finally spotted my family again. Comet Tail had my daughter on his back. She looked about as tired as me. Carrot Top sat next to them slick with sweat and matted with dirt.

Somepony came up beside me and put something over my withers. I crumpled, expecting more weight. When I fell, it pulled back and I realized it was just a wing.

“Woah! Easy, Punch; it’s me!” Cloud Kicker assured me. The sharp feeling in my legs protested as she helped me back up. I saw Blossomforth look on in worry. They were both coated in dust.

“You alright?” Blossomforth asked.

“Uh, yeah. Just a little overwhelmed,” I heard myself say from the bottom of a well. I kept moving towards my friends until I was within hugging distance of Minuette.

She wrapped her hooves around me and practically propped me up in her hug. She didn’t let me go. I could feel her heart beating against mine. As she snuggled and held me, I think mine calmed.

“Did you guys see us? We took down a Little Dipper,” Cloud bragged.

“Ursa Minor,” Blossom corrected.

“Yeah, that.”

“Sergeant! Monsters inbound from the forest! Sixty seconds!” the Marine on watch called.

“Cast defensive spells! Get on the roofs! Ready fireworks!” Fleur cried out, readying her volunteers for wave two.

Carrot Top slowly rose and looked our friends over. Her vision landed on me struggling to stand.

“...let’s go see if we can get some water,” Carrot suggested. Minuette nodded. Ruby and Comet Tail made no arguments. With our tails between our legs we joined the herd moving back.

Despite the battles happening behind us, the field hospitals seemed just as chaotic. Ponies beaten, battered and just exhausted crowded the streets around Carousel Boutique. Crying ponies were being consoled. The injured waited to be helped by the overwhelmed ponies strapped for resources. Ponies ran around trying to help where they could: searching the supplies dragged out into the street for makeshift wraps and kindling. Everything seemed already picked over. Without a confirmed safe source, water was being rationed so we were out of luck there.

Carrot Top insisted I get checked for a concussion and her and Minuette dragged me into the field hospital. While we waited, we spotted a familiar cream coated mare with blue and pink hair. She was crying and holding a mare’s hoof who was lying on the ground on a folded blanket. It took me longer than it should have but I recognized her friend covered in ash. To our relief, when we got close we could tell Lyra was breathing but unconscious.

We came up behind the mare who looked up at us with red, tearful eyes. She wiped the snot from her muzzle and sniffled.

“Oh... you're his friends, right?” she asked us. Minuette and I looked at each other, unsure about her wording, but Minuette nodded.

“Yeah! We’re friends. My name’s Minuette! This is Berry Punch,” she introduced us.

“Bonbon; Brooke,” Bonbon gave before turning back to Lyra. She reached out and brushed Lyra’s cheek. Lyra’s mouth fell open at the touch but continued lying limp before Bonbon gently closed it back.

“What happened?” I asked. Lyra looked battered and beaten but we all did.

“The dummy… threw me out of the w-way and he… she…” Bonbon tried to explain before breaking down into a choking mess of tears and snot. Minuette was quick with the hug and I followed. Bonbon hid her crying eyes in Minuette’s chest and we took turns brushing her mane and back. From what I could gather in the ugly, muffled crying: Lyra wouldn’t wake up after getting knocked through a wall.

“Hey, …Berry,” a pony greeted me tiredly. I looked up and saw a white unicorn with a messy blue mane. Resting on her bleeding muzzle she had a broken set of expensive-looking shades: one frame was scratched and the other was cracked. “What’s… ” Vinyl asked, her voice dying when she spotted Lyra.

Behind her, Octavia sat her cello case down. Her thick black mane looked disheveled but her little bowtie remained straight and proper. She looked over the scene and gasped when she spotted Lyra and the tears on Bonbon’s face.

“Oh, no…” she gasped and ran to hug Bonbon.

“...buck,” Vinyl grumbled. With her hooves, she removed the broken sunglasses from her face, exposing the burst blood vessels in her eyes.

“How is it out there?” Minuette asked the DJ.

Vinyl’s gaze was pulled from Octavia consoling Bonbon to look at Minuette. She looked down at her broken glasses and shook her head.

“Chaotic,” Vinyl began. “We started getting rid of all the squid things and it was like all hell broke loose: giant bat things, a three-headed dog, gremlin-looking whatevers…” A look of disgust overcame her face. “If I never have to see another tentacle ever again it’ll still be too soon.”

Minuette gave the unicorn a consoling nuzzle. As Vinyl returned it, her distant magenta eyes met mine.

“Don’t suppose you got something to pick up our spirits?” the weary unicorn asked in thin humor.

I shook my head and felt a bit like I had failed at something.

Vinyl didn’t seem too put out by it though. Instead she looked back towards Octavia who had managed to quiet Bonbon’s sobs. When she did, Vinyl’s eyes eventually fell back to Lyra. I saw Vinyl’s eyes and ears perk in her direction and mine followed.

The mint green unicorn stirred. I saw her ears rotate and irises flick beneath heavy eyelids.

“Bonnie?” a voice came from her throat. Everyone else stopped to look at her now. “...I think I need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

From my angle, I saw Bonbon’s ears go through a rollercoaster of emotions before landing on sharp anger.

“You dummy!” she yelled even as she grabbed her ‘friend’ and deeply kissed her on the lips anyway. After several seconds she pulled away. “Why?? How could you! You almost killed her!”

The poor unicorn, barely conscious, seemed to have trouble following. “Bonbon?”

“...Lyra?”

“I think so. But… I’m…we’re… I don’t know. I’m a little blurry.”

“Lyra, did you do that or did Tyler?” Bonbon asked. The rest of us exchanged glances, a little confused at what was going on.

“I did? I don’t know. I was just… you were going to die and then… I fell in sync?”

The only other pony who could explain what she was saying was hugging and kissing her.

“It’ll be okay! Whatever happens, w-we won’t leave you!” Bonbon declared as she started crying all over again and hugging Lyra who started to weakly reciprocate the hug.

A tall mare in a heavily-stained apron approached our group, probably from Bonbon’s new outcry. I saw she had a hacksaw for a cutie mark.

“Oh, thank Celestia,” she said around a shiny, hoof-cranked drill in her mouth. She gestured to Lyra. “Is she lucid?”

“About as well as her,” Vinyl said, gesturing to Bonbon. The cello player next to her gave her a soft jab to the side and a disapproving head shake.

“Alright. Good,” the oblivious ‘surgeon’ approved. “Keep her talking and make sure she stays that way.”

“I will!” Bonbon assured and smothered her friend in hugs and kisses again.

“I need more bandages!” A pink stallion nearby called out. Ponies rushed around, taking orders from the blankflank with seniority.

I saw a Clydesdale of a pony come up to the field hospital, dragging an improvised stretcher stained red with two wounded ponies on it.

“Henry! Two Code Reds!” the stout earth pony called.

“Are they conscious?” The pink stallion asked without looking up from the crying pony he was with.

“Yeah, for now,” the giant emphasized.

Henry looked up at the situation from his position.

“Blanket!” ‘Henry’ called. A green mare with a quilt cutie mark looked up from the pony’s leg she just finished stitching. He pointed towards the Code Red’s stretcher. “Get started on them! I’ll be right over!” He turned and headed for another patient first. “Where’s my sterile water??”

“C-coming!” somepony else called from the organized chaos.

“Thank you! Bed four!” he said before joining Blanket with assessing the ponies brought in.

Minuette, Carrot Top and I left the field hospital as it started to get busier. We rejoined my daughter and Comet Tail just as I saw them talking quietly. I saw him nod and hug her.

“Did we miss anything?” I asked, sensing I did. Comet Tail shook his head.

“N-no,” my daughter said but wouldn’t look at me. I was too tired to intrude.

We sat in exhausted silence for a while. I was resting my aching hind legs. I held my daughter who in quiet, shaking confidence admitted she was nauseous from all the magic casting. A shell-shocked Carrot Top with several cuts and growing bruises was quietly petting Minuette who was resting with one hoof over her eyes, nursing a headache. I could tell from the wear in Comet Tail’s eyes he wasn’t feeling any better than the rest of us.

“Town center is lost!” A pegasus crier swooped low through the street. “Where’s Shining Armor?? …the town center is lost!”

I looked over when I saw Vinyl Scratch and Octavia coming our way. They looked in the direction of the crier.

“Shining’s missing?” Comet wondered aloud as we watched.

“He disappeared a while ago with Big Mac,” Vinyl Scratch explained.

It was just us then: the ‘background ponies’ protecting the portal until they all came back. Assuming they came back.

“All volunteers!” the pegasi searching for Shining called out. “Town center is falling! All volunteers!”. I watched the pony continue her sweep, calling out to all the ponies dragging themselves away from the fight or licking their wounds.

We grew silent again. Somebody, somewhere, was crying. Another pony, covered in a sheet, was quietly being carted to an out of the way house where all the still ponies with sheets draped over them went.

Eventually I had nowhere else to look than back to my exhausted, battered friends and family. Carrot’s eyes stung with pained vigilance. The circles under Minuette and Comet’s eyes betrayed what was probably magical fatigue. My own daughter was growing her own. I didn’t like seeing her like this. She shouldn’t have to push herself like this. My own hind legs weren’t shaking anymore but I didn’t think a buck from them was going to do much more than make them hurt worse. None of us were the pony who was going to save Equestria. Especially not me.

But… I was starting to get scared at the idea of doing nothing. I knew doing nothing wouldn’t make anything better: usually it tempted things to get worse.

That was the story of my depression, after all.

I realized a pony was staring at me and it wasn’t the pony I was expecting.

Vinyl’s eyes met mine and they were asking me ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

I think we were close. I nodded.

“...Tavi, Babe?” Vinyl asked sweetly. “Give me my other glasses.”

Her gray friend was a little confused but let her cello case down and opened it up anyway. Out from underneath a cello with a broken neck, I watched her pull out a pair of plastic, purple-framed glasses.

Unsure, she offered the cheap glasses to the pony that requested them. Vinyl took them up in her magic and gave her the broken pair in return.

DJ Pon3 gave her wild, messy mane a good, hard shake all to one side, donned her toy glasses, and gave Octavia a grin. There was an unconcealed, mischievous look in her eyes. Octavia gave a soft smile back.

“How do I look?” Vinyl asked her.

“Like the horse I fell in love with,” the cello player answered.

Vinyl nodded approvingly and looked at me then the rest of us over with a confident smile.

“Guys, we came over here for a reason!” she declared. “Rainbow Dash and her friends will take care of Discord but we gotta take care of each other! We built this country! Not them! We are Equestria! Without us, it doesn’t exist! Then and now! So let’s show everypony what ‘background ponies’ can do!”

I saw a few ponies with fresh cuts, bruises and favoring limbs approach the popular pony calling for action.

I looked from Vinyl to my daughter, Comet Tail, Minuette and Carrot Top. I didn’t think a hurting alcoholic pony could do much, but maybe with a gardener, an astronomer, an amazing daughter, …whatever it was Minuette did, and a few musicians a difference could be made. I think a second wind was changing our course.

“I think I hear an encore~” Vinyl sang, looking around at the wheels turning in our heads.

“I think I do too,” Octavia agreed with a slow, practiced bow.

“Who’s with me??” Vinyl Scratch shouted. The crowd of onlooking ponies responded:

“I’ll follow you, Vinyl!”

“Me too!”

“I’m not that hurt…”

“...I’ll come with you,” Carrot Top offered. I saw a blue glow appear on Comet’s horn and then around Carrot before leaving a soft glow to her coat.

“Me too,” Comet agreed as well.

“Me three!” Minuette quickly added.

My daughter prodded my side. I saw from the look in her absinthe eyes that her mind was already made up. Mine was too.

“Can I ride on your back?” my Ruby asked. I lowered myself for her. She didn’t need to ask: she knew what my answer was always going to be. I felt her familiar weight on me. Despite it making my aches and pains worse, I could hold my daughter; I demanded it from myself.

I looked at the unicorn in the glasses and nodded. Vinyl gave us all a reckless grin.

“Alright then! Let’s go kick some bass!” Vinyl said, rearing up and kicking the air. Ponies cheered as she charged off. I heard Octavia huff slightly as, together as a little herd, we all headed back into the violence.

We didn’t have to go far to hear the battle raging on. After we rounded a street corner I saw how close the front line was getting. We passed defensive walls being set up behind the trenches, preparing for the worst. I heard spells detonated, bodies of every shape fell from the sky. I heard ponies screaming in rage, love and defeat.

I looked past the violence, past Ponyville, towards the top of a nearby mountain. It was on fire. At the very top, I thought I saw things climb out of a pit, illuminated by an orange glow from deep within. I realized some of the dust in the air was actually falling ash. It wasn’t there before, but it was back, looking just like it did twenty-five years ago.

Princess Luna said that that mountain was the place where Princess Celestia had fallen to the bottom of Tartarus.

Tartarus was awake.

“Them!” Vinyl shouted, drawing my attention back in front of us. We took a detour and were heading for a familiar unicorn trying to untangle a pink pony from the vine of a giant walking plant. Wrenched from her friend’s grip, the pink pony was lifted in the air towards the creature’s mouth with a mane of blue petals. I saw Thunderlane swoop down and little Duo on his back fired a buckshot of sparks towards its face.

It flailed and swept a vine where they had been but it didn't drop the screaming, squirming pony.

Vinyl, Octavia, our volunteers, my friends and I came to a stop next to the unicorn.

“Other Berry!” Harmony Trebleheart said, spotting me and my friends. “Help me!” She begged before blasting the monster’s trunk again. With extra unicorns to help, they sawed, burned and beat through its coarse, meaty trunk and it began to bleed sap. It started violently shaking and desperately pulling itself away to escape.

We chased after it, with it still holding its prey up high. As it continued to bleed its clear liquids, it started to slow. The stitching in my rear leg left me trailing behind everypony else. Carrot and Octavia grabbed its dragging, wriggling roots and climbed up its trunk as unicorns fired spells at its head and stem again.

Finally, in a last ditch effort, the plant tossed its meal. The mare sailed above the rooftops. Unicorns on roofs looked like they tried to catch her in magic but she was too far for them.

Comet Tail watched her arc and immediately rushed in the direction where she was going to hit the street. I saw his horn light up. With a spell I’d never seen before, he blurred the last twenty yards and caught her in his magic. As he tried to slow her fall, his magic gave out. More gently than before, she fell the last ten feet onto his back. My best friend audibly grunted as she landed.

We all rushed to them sitting on the ground.

“That was awesome!” Vinyl shouted.

“Are you okay?” I asked. The pink pony, with a strawberry cake cutie mark, grabbed Comet Tail in a hug.

“My hero!” she hailed before kissing and clinging to him. Comet Tail visibly squirmed but tried not to be too rude when he pushed her off. “My name’s Strawberry Frosting! Berry for short!” she told Comet specifically.

“...Comet Tail,” Comet gave politely.

“Poor stallion, now there’s two of them,” Carrot snarked. Minuette glanced my way and giggled.

Thunderlane landed next to us with his little pal Duo on his back.

“Y’all heading to the town center?” Harmony asked us. Our group nodded.

“Us too! Let’s go save Ponyville!” Thunderlane gave his support.

As a larger group, we continued down the street. The fortifications across the street to corral the monsters and focus the overrun fighting made us cross inside buildings being fortified as quickly as they were being abandoned.

One house’s interior was in disorderly combat as ponies and changelings disguised as ponies were in a full feud inside. As we crossed through and came out of the other side some more ponies, or were they changelings, joined our charge.

“Astronomy? You know I’m something of a scientist myself!” Strawberry continued to flirt.

“He likes stallions!” Carrot Top shouted back at her, apparently getting annoyed.

“They got that in common too then! Fast friends!” Harmony shouted and laughed.

The streets swam with crocodiles made of rocks and things that looked like a cross between an ostrich and a tarantula. Unicorns and earth ponies attacked them mostly from the roofs. We only stopped to help when ponies were overrun. We had a goal, after all.

Finally, I saw ponies and current-ponies who told me we were nearing the town center. Among ponies fighting a bat-like thing, I saw an exhausted, bloody Fleur and her Marines.

The gigantic creature they were fighting was snarling and swinging its clawed wings and extra appendages at ponies trying to bring it down. In one of its four extra legs it gripped a lifeless pony. There were holes torn clean through its wingspan that canopied the street. Its heavily muscled legs were bucked and shot while it kicked away wildly and landed razor sharp claws that tore open ponies. A Marine got too close and it lunged fangs first. Ponies concentrated on its face and its six eyes but its bite landed. I could feel the bloody scream in my ears.

I saw Pinchy's magic shield Vinyl leading our charge and we all joined the fray. Vinyl gave a battle scream as her magic punched into the creature’s face, joining the magical lasers, arrows, sparks and knives leaving its face a bloody mess.

The creature reared up and began climbing up a building with its free legs while its wings frantically flapped, sending gusts down the street that knocked us over and sent pegasi and debris tumbling.

“Jackson!” Fleur cried out from her blood-coated muzzle, trying and failing to get anywhere near the creature before it ascended over the town. Ponies on the rooftops who weren’t blown off continued shooting and spraying it with the spells they knew, but it looked like the bat was going to get away. I saw Fleur’s horn try to alight before her magic failed and she collapsed into tears.

While I watched helplessly as the bat-thing gained altitude and grew smaller, I saw a flying formation of pegasi suddenly deliberately crash straight into its wing. It was sent into a spiral as somepony else, larger and stranger-looking with a pony on their back, went for its head.

The Marine pony that was in its mouth was pulled free and an eagle cry pierced the sounds of war around us. I saw the pegasi squad break free from the plummeting bat.

The bat grew larger as it fell back to ground. It missed the street entirely as it came crashing down into a quaint, little home a distance away. Its shattered body laid lifeless in the collapsed rubble. The pegasi and their leader came down much more gently with the ponies they had just rescued.

Their leader was not a pony. They had the body, tail and back legs of a lion and the head, wings and talons of an eagle; a griffon. The Marine wrapped over their back was gently pushed off.

Unphased by the rescuer’s appearance, Fleur and other Marines rushed to help their fallen comrade. Fleur hugged the wounded Marine who weakly reciprocated before the others started giving him medical attention.

Satisfied, the white and pink sergeant turned back to the griffon who saved him.

“Thank you,” Fleur told their leader. The griffon gave her a dismissive wave with their talon.

“Just returning your jarhead,” the griffon explained. Her gravely voice made me realize this might be Rainbow Dash’s old friend, Gilda.

“Well, I still appreciate it, Lieutenant,” Fleur said with a nod.

“‘Lieutenant’!” Gilda guffawed. “‘oo-rah~’” Gilda mocked the formality as she turned away to leave.

“Hey! You can’t say that! That’s our word!” Fleur warned. I saw the griffon freeze and turn back. She looked worried like she just said something awful before a friendlier grin cracked on Fleur’s face. Gilda relaxed and smirked back.

“Clean yourself up, Fleur: the Rangers need our help in town square!” Gilda passed the word along before spreading her wings and taking off with her pegasus squad.

I saw Fleur wipe the blood from her nostrils off onto one bandaged foreleg and her tears onto the other. Then, she took a deep breath before turning back to her Marines, her volunteers and the growing herd that I arrived with.

“Gonzalez, Washington: take Jackson back to medical. Everypony else: you heard the bird! Move up!”

“Oorah!” her Marines and a few volunteers replied.

Vinyl’s little group had become an exhausted but determined mob by the time we spotted the crushed remains of town hall. The air was filled with the smell of blood and fire. The trenches ahead had been overrun with various giant cats and bears wearing armor and wielding weapons. If those creatures were people, they didn’t show it. The terrified and wounded ponies we came to help had fallen back to a row of sharpened pickets. The line they were holding with magic was strained.

“Hold! Hold!” A blankflank shouted right before a large black cat that reached the line tried to pounce him. He deflected it with his spear then stabbed it. It thrashed on the end of his weapon.

Despite his commands, ponies were running even while we came up behind them. Others had given up entirely and were crying and holding themselves. They had the right to be scared: ponies all around us were injured and some weren’t moving.

I glanced over at my friends. Comet Tail and Minuette looked especially tired but I saw them begin casting shields on the ponies holding the line anyway. Carrot Top had begun consoling a crying pony, even as she picked up the pike that the mare must have dropped. My daughter hadn’t cast anything for a while but she clung to my back even while I struggled to hold her.

I looked around, wondering what I could possibly do to actually help. That was when I spotted Cherry Berry, my family. She was covered in mud, dirt and ash and had her back pressed up against the side of a building. She was holding her tail and looked like she was in a daze.

“Cherry?” I went to her and nudged her. She looked at me with a thousand-yard stare.

Then she saw my daughter. The look in her eyes was like she suddenly remembered who she was and all her emotions overwhelmed her: fear, sadness, joy, loss.

“Cherry, we’re here,” I told her what I think she needed to hear. That unleashed whatever emotional dam she was holding: she reached for me and desperately embraced me like she was drowning. When my daughter started petting her mane I felt her start sobbing. I could barely stand right now, let alone fight so I hugged her back.

“I left her with Feather Shine!” she explained in hysterics. “Piña is going to grow up without me!”

“No she won’t. You can go to her! Right now,” I explained. She kept crying and mumbling things I couldn’t understand so I just kept holding her.

“I heard you needed some help!” Fleur shouted. I looked over Cherry’s withers and watched the blankflank in charge, the US Ranger, look over Fleur. I think he connected the dog tags on her to the blankflanks’ that came with her and understood what she must have been in another life. He gave her a pained smile.

“Desperately. Ponies aren’t fighters. It’s in their instincts to run. No offense,” he explained. Fleur shook her head.

“No, you’re right, we’re not fighters. We’re lovers!” Fleur gushed. I saw fresh tears slip from her red eyes. “Ponies’ instincts are to love; to be in harmony! We need to remind them of what they’re fighting for; use their instincts and herd mentality to our advantage!”

“Herd instincts…” he paused to consider what he knew. “Mocking jays… ” he mumbled to himself as a twinkle found its way in his eyes.

“What?” Fleur asked, confused by the line of logic he was beginning to follow.

“Oh hell, if Ballad hears about this I’m so busted,” he said before turning back to the cat creatures rushing the breach that was forming from a warbear going on a rampage. He cleared his throat and, as loud and as clear as possible, …began singing:

I had never heard the song before, but somehow, I knew the next few lines. I don’t think I was the only one either because I heard Minuette and other ponies join him:

As ponies kept singing, they seemed to forget their fears as they moved forward on instinct to fill the gap in the line with him and hold back against the leopards. There was a strange, but familiar magic happening. Something embedded in the voices that rose out of fighting:

I couldn’t help it, I heard the rhyme coming and needed to finish it. I felt Cherry Berry singing too. I heard Ruby’s voice on my back and in my head. I don’t know how I was being fed the lyrics, but singing rose out of the fighting.

I felt a magic shield cast over my body and then Cherry’s. I looked up at the building next to us. Ruby wanted me to get to the roof. She didn’t have to say it. I just knew. Everything suddenly seemed clearer.

I headed through the entrance of the building and straight for the broken stairs. I climbed the collapsed remains but was too weak to pull myself up onto landing. I felt a bump and a push as Cherry got me onto the second floor. I turned around to help her up. The entire time we kept singing; the voices outside carried through the walls and through my head and out of my mouth:

Strength. We prepared but we couldn’t ever have been ready for war. We were lovers, not fighters. But lovers loved and at that moment… I could empathize with everypony on the battlefield and my weakness didn’t matter. Cherry and I found the bedroom window that led onto the roof. I knew it’d hold. We moved out and to the edge where other ponies were.

As the last verse swelled out of me as we took in the view. Tartarus watched from afar as singing ponies took back their town center. Armored, weapon-wielding creatures of Discord’s army stood no match to ponies in harmony. I lowered my head to sing with them while Ruby took aim and blinded a bear across the street before it made a killing blow:

A cheer broke out of the battlefield as the remaining cats ran. The last grizzly swung a claw at somepony but was pulled back by somepony else’s magic. It spun around on all fours and charged forward. Then abruptly stopped. It looked around, seeing it was surrounded. The bear roared but was silenced when somepony threw a chair at it. Overwhelmed and wounded, it ran and ponies let it leave.

Ponies cheered again. The victory was cut short though.

“Northwest!” a pegasus called out and others echoed back to carry the call outward:

“Northwest!!”

“Northwest!”

On some lingering instinct, we all knew the direction: it was Tartarus. I saw the twisted, broken things moving low across town roofs now. Each coated in soot and tentacles.

Ponies on the ground shouted. There were things coming along the streets as well. I saw ponies hesitate at the creatures coming in the streets. I couldn’t see them from my position.

“Po-nies! …stand together!” Fleur’s voice cracked. Ponies found themselves again. I saw ponies pick up weapons the army had dropped and formed groups and lines. I scanned the crowd below and spotted Minuette waving up at us. Ruby waved back at her, Comet Tail and Carrot Top standing together. We were staying up here and they understood. Ruby would protect them and Cherry and I would protect her.

Unicorns started casting spells. A catapult was launched. A disgusting wave of deformed creatures hit the ground ponies hard: giant crab things, tiger-turtles, wolf-chameleons, a giant panda hornet. Each looked as violent as we were worn out. I saw more earth ponies rush to hold the line as unicorns cast spells and shields. A green vortex spiraled around Ruby’s horn and shot out across the rooftops. I looked up at her aim. Her concentrated blast struck one of the incoming creatures.

On closer look, the new creatures were made of burning coals and had too many limbs and wings. Half of those were hooves, the rest were tentacles. It was them. Those things from my nightmares. It had to be: they were too similar.

I ran for the window we climbed through.

“Mom!” she yelled from my back.

“We’re… we’re out in the open!” I claimed as we retreated into the bedroom. Cherry Berry and another pony followed. Three coal monsters moments later climbed in after us. Their steps left soot across the floor before they charged. One came right at me. I saw it burst into green and hesitate long enough for me to turn around and buck it. I felt it shatter as I collapsed to the floor.

Cherry next to us screamed. The coal monster wings’ shook soot and ash everywhere as they flapped and tried to pull the struggling pony back towards the window. The other pony had fled for the broken stairs and its pursuer followed.

The creature holding Cherry burst into green again before it dropped her. Seeing the chance, I fumbled towards it and kicked it until a free Cherry joined me. Ruby’s aura on the monster dropped in time for us to turn around and buck it together. It shattered into ash. I could feel my heartbeat throb in my legs.

“Mom!” Ruby shouted. I looked at her and she was pointing. The creatures’ smoking ember remains on the abandoned floors were beginning to catch fire from dust all over the floor and in the air. There must have been thousands of smoking pieces in a pool of black tar.

“Oh,” I said dumbly. I stared at them for a second and did the math. Then nudged Cherry to run before we all ran for the stairs. We tumbled down them. Glancing to the right, I saw a similar scene was happening downstairs with smoldering remains. I didn’t see the other pony.

“The building’s on fire!” Cherry shouted before we ran back outside. It was hard to track ponies in the fighting. I looked up from the street at the first floor roof. I didn’t see anypony up there.

“Mom, did you see that? I could feel them. They were made of rocks,” my daughter dragged my attention back to her.

“Rocks?” I asked, not thinking.

“My special talent!” Ruby explained. “The core was like crude oil but they were coal everywhere else!”

I looked around the streets for more of those creatures. There was a fracturing front line. The panda hornet had broken through and was being taken down behind the major fighting line.

Finally, I spotted more of the coal monsters. Ponies wrestled and fought. I saw three pegasi drag one back to the ground before it was smashed to pieces and a pony in its clutches was freed. The town center was in chaos, but it looked like we were going to make it.

“They’re different from my nightmares,” I acknowledged aloud.

“Yeah. I know what you’re talking about,” Cherry agreed next to us before trying to pat some of the soot off herself. “They’re not as hot either.”

I could see and smell the smoke billowing out of the second story above us now.

“Should we… let somepony know a house is on fire?” Cherry asked, noticing the same. I wondered how we would even put it out: water was a premium right now and there were more of those things. Ponyville was pretty ravaged already. Especially after that-

“Bear!” somepony overhead shouted over the chaos. Ponies screamed and some ran before I felt the familiar earthquakes start. Cherry, Ruby and I looked at each other before we ran back into the fray. I absolutely didn’t want to go near one of those bears, but more than that I wanted my family to be safe.

We spotted Minuette, Vinyl and Comet Tail using their magic to hold a coal monster down while Octavia and Carrot bucked it into pieces. By the time we reached them, the pounding grew heavier. By the time we were smashing embers, ponies holding down one street were all running now. Giant crabs and canine-like chameleons chased after the fleeing ponies.

My own flight-or-fight response kicked in when the air tore from a horrific, distorted roar. I ‘noped’ the way others were going and my friends were quick to catch up and pass me.

“Fall back! Regroup!” the US Ranger was shouting ahead of us on a barrier made of wood and dirt. It definitely wasn’t going to hold it.

Stumbling from the earth-shattering charge, I looked back to witness it. For the second time that night, the town center was hit by a mountain in bear-shape. This time though, instead of being translucent and full of stars, it was black and full of embers. It stopped short of colliding into the flattened wreckage of town hall but it was already aggravated and swiping at the pegasi in the air and the unicorns and earth ponies daring to get too close and distract it.

“...anybody got a song request?” the Ranger called out to the crowd. Without missing a beat, Minuette next to me was quick to volunteer one:

I knew this one! And not on instinct. I heard several ponies and myself join in:

The burning, ember-filled mountain behind gave a glass-shattering roar again. Several of us stopped to cover our ears and turned to look in fear. The pegasi swooping by and unicorn spells weren’t enough to quench its bloodlust. It was looking directly at us and charged. Ponies screaming and desperately trying to get behind the barrier drowned out the ones who continued singing:

Unicorns fired and tried to pull it back while pegasi dive-bombed its head, desperate to get its attention off of us.

“Brace for impact!” Fleur shouted as me and my family, still on the wrong side of the barrier, saw the titan thunder forward. I felt my daughter tighten around my back and saw ponies charging spells.

Then the path between us and the behemoth exploded into smoke.

The titan tripped through the smoke and came smashing down into a shattering, street-ruining slide that ended a dozen feet in front of us. Ponies kept screaming and scrambling behind the barrier. I stared in wonder and shock.

I could feel the furnace roll out of it with every angry huff as it tried to lift itself up off the ground and get what tripped it up off of its leg. It snapped a rope of colored hoofkerchiefs wrapped around a toe that had been tied to an now-uprooted street lamp.

I didn’t have to stare confused for long until another pillar of smoke burst right in front of the colossus. Almost immediately, where there was no pony before, a blue unicorn with white and blue hair stepped out of the smoke as it dispersed. It was Trixie, wearing a weird wizard hat and cloak complete with bells that rang with every step.

Trixie grinned at her audience of onlookers, bowed theatrically, then began considering the very angry, very large bear from hell staring down at her. She continued the singing where we had left off, sort of:

“Fireworks!” Fleur called out from on top of the barricade.

Every unicorn who knew a relevant spell obliged, including Trixie. There was an eye-searing flash as sparks and bursts of lights ignited in front of the bear. The bear let out a roar, more confused than anything, while pegasi began attacking it from above.

As Trixie’s horn erupted into a fountain of sparks that occasionally whistled and shot out towards the bear. She galloped around the behemoth and back towards town center she continued singing loudly:

The ponies on the wall hesitantly responded a moment later:

“It’s harmony!” Vinyl Scratch shouted instead of joining us. I scanned around and spotted her shaking Octavia. “That filly was right! Our magic is harmony! Music is harmony! We can fight them with music!”

The gray mare stared for a moment, saw the chimeric abominations taking the place where the bear was before she continued with the rest of us:

“No! Bigger! We need everypony singing!” Vinyl shouted

“Everypony is singing! Except you!” Octavia retorted.

“No! Ponyville!” Vinyl clarified and spread hooves out. “If everypony is singing, it can’t be stopped! We can’t be stopped!”

“How are we going to get all of Ponyville singing?” Octavia asked. Vinyl glanced down a road just off mane street. All this time, if I weren’t standing so close I wouldn’t have heard them over the chorus going at the same time:

“Grab your cello! I think I see our house from here!” Vinyl said as she was already heading in that direction. Octavia re-situated her case on her back and followed the pony with a plan.

“Mom!” my Pinchy yelled and brought me back to the fighting. Monsters were still coming, even if the giant bear was being distracted by Trixie’s magic show.

I felt myself move forward with everyone else while we kept in harmony singing:

A confused, overwhelmed tiger-turtle, ready to pounce, was blind-sided by a pegasus crashing into its stripped shell while a unicorn on a roof brought a pile of vases down on a wolf-chameleon. Ponies stampeded the wolf lizard creature, taking teeth and claws but overwhelming it and bringing it to a panicked state. I helped kick the tiger-turtle back into its up-ended shell and I saw Pinchy over my shoulder sear its claw. All the while, the singing was our heartbeat:

The dissonance was troubling, but the metaphor was clear to us: spring was twenty-five years late. We had to push through the ugliness of ‘winter’ to bring back the sun.

My family, Cherry Berry included, moved to help ponies struggling with an ashen, twisted Tartarus monster. I saw it become entangled with my favorite green color and ponies separated the limbs with kicks and bucks. A meaty crab claw knocked me and Ruby and we rolled. Ruby was quick to climb back onto me; I think I took the brunt of the hit. I could tell from how we both kept singing we were fine:

The building Cherry and I witnessed catching fire was fully consumed in smoke and flames now. The fire licked and began devouring the building next to it. I saw ponies’ efforts to try and bring the building down to smother the fire. The heat and light was like a dangerous, ugly sun spewing black clouds.

All the while, the hope burned brighter and blinded us from the horrors: promises of holidays, blooming life and long harvests filled the air. We had to focus on that feeling the singing gave us.

A pony was almost crushed under the hellbear’s paw as it chased Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth before she was pulled away during the chorus. Trixie’s new assistants were trying to aggravate the bear. As much as they could distract and anger it, it would only start charging them but not follow them through a shop’s front. The bear definitely didn't like them though: the chorus-ending, hearing-destroying, building-demolishing roar made us sure of it.

It was almost as if…

“About time you two! We were running out of verses!” Minuette called behind me. Ruby and I were closely watching ponies finally bucking the panda-hornet into submission. Seeing the ponies hold off the even stranger hellcats, I turned to see who Minuette was talking to.

A gray mare with an orderly pink bowtie was pulling a rickety, squeaking wagon loaded down with some weird and some recognizable electronic equipment.

“Cover us!” Vinyl shouted from atop two ancient-looking loudspeakers in the back of the wagon. Her ear was pressed close to a cello in desperate need of lacquer as she used her magic to tune it with strings she was cannibalizing from the broken cello laying at her hooves.

I saw a blue aura slide over both of them and leave behind a soft glow as Comet Tail joined Minuette, Ruby and me. We encircled the wagon and stood our ground. We immediately understood and put our faith in their crazy theory.

More gnarled, blackened things, possibly from the spreading fire or possibly from Tartarus fell upon town center as the singing stopped. The fighting from the edges of town were spiraling towards here as strings were re-tuned and tested, a promise of more music.

Holes in the dirt paths erupted as bipedal dogs with oversized forelegs dug out of them and tried to kidnap ponies. I broke formation when I saw one grab Cherry Berry.

By the time my legs, screaming at me with every step, got me to her, ponies had pulled her away to safety. I saw the blunt back of a heavy axe, stolen from a wounded Minotaur, come down on the would-be-pony-napper.

“Cherry!” I pulled her to her shaking hooves. She saw me and my daughter, disheveled. I had a crazy smile for her, even though when she started looking me over, I realized at some point during the singing I had been cut on the shoulder and was bleeding. It was just a flesh-wound. “Come on!” I gestured and ran back to our friends. Cherry followed me back past a giant, flopping fish on fire and around the worryingly growing wall of tentacles that erupted from a house crumbling into a sinkhole.

I should have been terrified of our situation: the black smoke choked out half of the red sky above us. A griffon and a squadron of pegasi and unicorns were wrestling with a three-headed hydra on powerful flippers coming down mane street. A colossal hellbear just crushed what I think was a post office while being assaulted by a deck of cards, a series of pillars of smoke and two crazy pegasi. In the distance, against the blood sky, past the changeling civil war, I saw a wall of what were probably huge, flying dragons coming.

I should have been terrified, but instead, I was soaked with adrenaline. My heart was humming and my breaths blurred but I was focused on the sight of my family. I felt euphoric coming back to them, even if I could tell my muscles were failing under the weight of my daughter: we were going to get past this. I believed in us.

We were dealing with a misshapen, burnt squid with three mouths that drew too close to the music wagon. Carrot and Octavia pulled it back by a trailing tentacle. It turned back and tried to grab them. Without pausing I joined them and kicked a few of the tentacles away from them. We had practice and knew to go for the head and where the eyes were supposed to be… even though this one looked wrong. It was almost if…

“Ready to be my bass, Babe?” Vinyl asked her cellist. She didn’t wait for an answer as she righted something that looked like a tesla coil in the back of her wagon.

“As long as you're my rock,” Octavia said, playing a long haunting note on the old cello. “How are you going to power all of this? Do you even know how it works?”

“Apply magic; improvise!” Vinyl explained. The white unicorn closed her eyes and relaxed. On an exhale her horn lit up and I saw a blue spark jump from the tip to the coil. Then another, then a whole field of them. I saw the DJ strain when her sparks were suddenly magnetized to the base of the device she was showering.

Suddenly, her wagon full of speakers groaned in horrible feedback that made everyone and everything on the battlefield flinch. The noise distorted and a laugh escaping the DJ was mixed into the pitching sounds before she found something that turned the volume all the way down.

“Found it!” Vinyl shouted. “I think this microphone works!”

The hellbear, thrown off by the noise, was finally distracted and went rampaging straight through one of the buildings that were on fire.

Carrot cracked through one of the giant crab-turtle’s legs that came at us. Comet Tail halted the pincer coming down to crush her in his magic and Minuette grabbed the other with hers and pulled. It was thrown off its balance and toppled over.

I saw a small group of pegasi break off from the dogfighting above and land around us, surely attracted by the noise. I recognized a few of them!

“Oh wow! What are you doing??” Summer Breeze asked, looking over the sound equipment. I had met her and the one next to her, Spring Breeze. The other two must have been their sisters.

“Bringing Pony-Bringing Ponyville into harmony!” Vinyl Scratch shouted over the sound of the hellbear pulling itself out of the rubble. It looked hotter; angrier. Loud, deep roars that could have been from anything filled the sky now.

“It looks like you’re playing music,” one of the cooler-hued sisters responded.

“Think you can set these up for me?” Vinyl asked as she huffed a speaker up by her magic. I wasn’t sure if it was heavier than it looked but her nose was bleeding again.

“Gladly,” Spring said as she offered her back. I saw the pegasi take the speakers off Vinyl’s hooves. They ascended, dodging the literal firefight Gilda and her friends were involved in, and took the speakers in separate directions.

Cherry nudged me. I looked around and realized I had been spacing out. My friends had been dealing with another charred, mutated squid. I threw myself back into it. Or at least, got close enough to kick it while my little Pinchy used her magic to strangle and hold back its tentacles.

“Mom!” my daughter shouted from my back. I turned back to see cragadiles swimming through the streets towards us. I jumped back from the snapping jaws and regretted my landing. My daughter seemed to push one away from us with her magic. A ball of fire arched from Comet’s horn and crashed into the nearest one’s face, blinding or at least fazing it.

Strong, slow bass strings began. After a few notes, the music started to echo from the rooftops; the Breezes had taken the loudspeakers to the top of some of the few remaining buildings nearby. The beat had a weird gait. It was primal and familiar; something every pony here couldn’t ever forget. Even so, very few ponies would dare to sing it:

The melody fell apart then started repeating the chords over and over again. The repetition was our battle drum. The chords galloped over the rooftops of Ponyville, echoing outward and inward. The beat was soul searching for something.

I helped kick another one of those coal creatures away. After I did, I scanned the ground around us; wondering where the cragadiles went. The shifting, rising and falling dirt around us gave me an answer.

“In the ground!” my daughter shouted. Nowhere else to immediately go, I dumped myself and my daughter into the music wagon just as something rammed itself into the side I was on. The wagon was rolled and tilted several feet before it came to a crash against a building. I checked my daughter was okay, the music ponies were still on board, then looked over to see the cragadiles climb up the side we were on.

Point-blank my daughter blasted the rock monster inside its open jaw. The smell of ozone lingered with the fire and brimstone when it collapsed back over the side. Our wagon rocked as the hellbear stomped past us where the wagon was moments ago. An electronic beat joined the cello from Vinyl’s tinkering. Octavia effortlessly fell into the meter and I felt my heartbeat do the same. With a new voice and tempo, Octavia’s playing became more sweeping, as did the voices calling back in response, in determination:

I saw the chaos around us and it was only getting worse. The tentacled thing that pulled an entire house into its sinkhole was rising, exposing horns and a lion’s mane. The hydra that the griffon and her group were distracting kept regenerating heads and new limbs that were getting cut off. One of the few remaining firelines was falling back as a strange, purple ooze advanced, pulling anything moving, pony or monster, into its immovable mass. I saw one of Fleur’s Marines stab a morphing, splitting creature only for it to eat his spear with a new mouth that formed around it and extend for his hooves.

Pinchy gathered her strength before her magic began to build and spin around her horn. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up before, like a laser, I saw her carve through the head of one cragadile encircling the wagon and across the back of another.

“I heard music…” a familiarly minty voice said. I looked back in time to see Bonbon climbing into the wagon. She helped pull a weak Lyra in who, despite the shaking and needing to be held up, held a gold lyre firm in her magic. “Needs more love…” she muttered as she started playing a more joyful version of Octavia’s song. I heard her strings gain voice and volume as Vinyl adjusted something and the speakers over the battlefield resonated the new duet.

Effortlessly, the strings and beat fell into harmony. There was a new message being felt. Together, with Octavia’s passion and Lyra’s hope the music morphed and out of the fear the words once brought, love rang sweetly from them now over the battlefield. My heart sang the new lyrics:

My favorite pony climbed onto my back. I saw a path through the cragadiles and my hooves immediately took it when I saw it led back to my family. All around and with me, Ponyville sang:

Comet Tail shot a burst of fire from his horn into the crawling, creeping thing that seized Carrot Top. Minuette’s magic grabbed Carrot Top and in a golden light pulled her free. As we ran up to them and the Marines, my Pinchy charged her horn then seared in half the thing that suddenly wore a copy of Carrot’s face. It screamed from several mouths as its two halves ran in separate directions.

My family wore brave smiles. We sang the next lines to each other, for each other, even as the last of the red sky not choked with Ponyville burning was blotted out by an army of dragons:

Fleur pierced one fleeing half of the mimic with the polearm she was using as a crutch before it could snare Cherry Berry. Her last Marine used his rifle to beat the thing’s head that was tearing itself from its body to escape.

As the injured hellbear dragged itself from the dead antlion’s sinkhole, one of the largest dragons descended upon Ponyville… and mercilessly tore through the bear. The hellbear's dying roars were overpowered by the chorus of thousands filling Ponyville’s ruined streets:

I joined a shaking, bleeding Carrot in bucking a Tartarus coal spawn. The muscles in my legs finally failed again and I collapsed. Without missing a beat Comet Tail took my daughter onto his back and Minuette lifted me up.

We looked on as dragons pulled ponies from the purple ooze’s grip and others swept it with fire. The ooze burned sickly sweet.

The dragons were on our side! The way they tore through the hydra to help Gilda and her pack confirmed it as well.

Cherry and Carrot kicked and bucked a coal monster on fire while Minuette tripped it up with her magic and I joined them. Comet and Pinchy chased down another.

The tides of battle tossed as the chaos turned into organized chaos. The fighting swelled with the music as the lions, tigers and bears became fearful of our singing.

As one, in harmony, we sang:

The Tartarus spawn were burning. They were identical to twenty-five years ago now. One of them struck me in the gut. I could feel it. It seared but the music washed out the pain and Minuette pulled it away enough that Cherry and I could buck it.

I looked out and saw my Pinchy and Comet Tail had gotten too far away for my liking to save another pony. There were all kinds of weird colored glows coming off of both of them. I saw one of those balls of fire that Comet Tail could make arc wild from my daughter’s horn. Comet jumped between my daughter and the wolfbear she missed. He braced a foreleg against its fangs. I saw bursts of colors where it struck. With the moment the bite bought, Comet charged his horn and point-blank shot the creature in its face. The creature broke from his leg that was bleeding freely now. He seemed unphased and checked on my daughter before looking back at the monster’s broken body; the singing put us all in a trance:

What neither of them saw was the dragon razing a three-story building because it was on fire and threatening another. I saw it. I saw the third story collapse and plummet to where they were. I opened my mouth to shout but Ruby did first.

“Dad!” Pinchy shouted, noticing the building collapsing on top of them at the last possible second. I saw Comet realize what was happening, scoop up my daughter and then a burst of light where they were before the building crumbled and spilled over them.

Carrot and Minuette must have noticed as well because they passed me and got to where they were first. Somehow they had to be okay, the song almost seemed to promise it to me, as long as I kept singing:

The dragon, seeing us digging into the rubble, realized their horrible mistake and began carefully pulling debris off the street. As the roof was pulled away… I saw Comet Tail standing on the other side of the collapsed building, holding my daughter. They were safe!

I ran and threw my hooves around them both. I felt Carrot and Minuette join the embrace. I recognized their hugs on instinct. For the first time in a long time, holding them in the rubble of Ponyville, I felt like I was home in Equestria.

My family sang the last lines with everypony else. With the music blaring from the blown out speakers on the rooftops, we announced to Equestria:

We looked up from our group hug when cheering started. Between the brave Rangers, Gilda’s guards, the tireless Marines and the hundreds of average ponies giving it their all, the center of town was recaptured and clear. Monsters were still coming, but they had to go through the piles of their dead and against the firelines, defenses on the rooftops and now the dragons.

Music still poured out over Ponyville. Searching the town square I spotted the remains of the music wagon. Octavia and Lyra continued playing, along with a few more ponies who joined them. Vinyl occasionally sparked the strange transmitter to keep the music going.

I glanced towards the monsters still coming. I wondered how long this fight was going to be. Among the lions, changelings and mismatched creatures I still saw the gnarled, burnt squids. It was like they were the ones from before… but they came back wrong. Some of them were so blackened they almost looked like…

“Mom? What’s wrong?” my Pinchy asked. I looked at her, frowned because I didn’t know if I was crazy or how to articulate it, then looked for the hellbear’s corpse for a better judge.

It was the size of a small building but all I could find were charred marks, ash, piles of embers. It was gone.

“Do you think… that was the ursa bear? The one that Trixie stopped? It was the same size,” I asked.

“...oh. Maybe but it looked different,” Carrot Top acknowledged.

“It died, right? Or am I misremembering?” I asked. I genuinely wasn’t sure anymore. It wasn’t impossible, maybe even likely, that I had a concussion.

“It died,” Comet Tail agreed. I saw him looking over his foreleg. It was bleeding but he was testing his weight on it. I could have used those shield spells last week.

“Are you going to be okay?” my Pinchy asked him. I remembered what she called him when he got that injury.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” he dismissed. He didn’t seem ready to acknowledge that part of it. “So, they’re coming back?”

“From… Tartarus?” I pointed towards it.

We all looked in the direction of the nearby mountain that looked more like an active volcano.

“They look like it, ” Carrot Top agreed. “A shame about the hole.”

Before we could follow that logic, the US Ranger approached us. I saw he had a cutie mark of a musical note with wings now.

“What’s wrong?” he asked us, apparently seeing us standing around instead of on the line. Carrot Top offered a summary.

“We think the monsters aren’t staying dead. They’re being reborn in Tartarus and coming back.”

“So that’s why they’re looking funny? …we’ll just have to hold until Twilight and her friends come back and take care of it. We’re only here to buy them time until they stop Discord.”

“How long can we hold out though?” Carrot asked the Ranger. “If this is true, then everything we just killed is coming right back here for revenge. And again and again.”

“What exactly is respawning them?” He asked the important question, then decided against it and dismissed the whole thing. “This is a Twilight Sparkle problem.”

“Perfect timing,” Gilda called out as she landed next to him. The US Ranger didn’t seem too startled by the large griffon. “Eric, I’m going to the castle. Dash is taking too long. This isn’t like her.”

“Big Mac and Shining Armor already went after them,” ‘Eric’ explained.

“Oh so it’s okay when stallions go check on their friends?” Gilda asked with her wings splayed out to make her look even bigger.

“That’s not what I meant,” Eric defended himself. When he saw the smirk somehow forming on her beak he knew that she knew that. Regardless, it made him reconsider. “If you want to take a scouting party and check out the castle, then fine. Just stay out of danger.”

“I’m two apex predators rolled into one; I am danger,” Gilda said, flapping those giant wings to get off the ground. “Squad! Let's go check on the twins!”

We watched her leave and ‘Eric’ sighed before looking back at us.

“Sorry about that. That’s Lt. Swiftwing. She’s…” he dropped it. He glanced towards his front line and back at the musicians playing our battle ballads. He reassessed us. “If we had a safe way to scout it and I could spare the ponies, I’d send someone but according to you monsters are literally coming from that way. I’m not moving the fight out of Ponyville. This is our defensive position. We have to protect the portal at all costs.”

“Actually, I know a safer way there. All of us do,” Carrot said, gesturing to ‘us’. “Minuette, do you remember the way we exited that cave system twenty-five years ago? And that door on the side of the mountain?”

“Yeah! You said ‘not that way!’” Minuette recalled. I remembered that cave very well, but Comet and I never left it. Discord caught us there. I felt sticky just thinking about it.

“That was the Gate to Tartarus. I’m sure of it.”

“You saw the gate? Do you think it’s open?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But if Cerberus is still there he’s doing an awful job,” Carrot mused darkly.

My friends and I had a unique advantage: we had a memory of how to get to Tartarus's front door while the monsters were coming out of the back of it and thanks to Princess Luna we knew that’s what was happening.

“...that might be worth investigating,” Eric said, bringing my attention back to him. “But I don’t want five injured ponies with no reconnaissance experience alone to check. And I can’t spare anyone who can.”

“Sure you can!” somepony interrupted our conversation. That pastel lavender flirt landed right next to me. Blossomforth quickly followed Cloud, looking somewhat confused by their own interruption. “If the Berry Bunch think this is important, we’ll take them.”

“You were in the Reserves, right?” Eric asked her.

“On Earth. In Equestria I was in the Canterlot Guard.”

“What? You were?” Blossomforth asked her own partner with a head tilt.

“Secret stuff. Couldn’t tell you. Sorry, Blossom,” she explained nonchalantly.

“But how did y-” Blossomforth started but was cut off by Cloud.

“Blossomforth and I can go. They’ll be our guides. They’re not fit for fighting anymore but they could light the way: three of them are unicorns. That little one is especially good. Sharpest filly I ever saw.”

“Corporal!” a hoarse Fleur called from across the cleared town square. Eric looked towards the shouting. “The cats and bears are back and they look pissed!”

Corporal ‘Eric’’s spear shifted under his wing. He was ready to rejoin the front line but looked back at us. He eyed Cloud Kicker.

“If you all feel up for it, then be careful. Keep them safe! Come back at the first sign of trouble. You’re only scouting to see if you can figure out a clear path.”

“Sir!” Cloud Kicker said with a salute with her foreleg before the corporal left us with the two pegasi. After he got some distance, Blossomforth turned to her feathered friend.

“I thought you got cold hooves and never joined the Guard?” Blossom asked.

“I technically graduated. I just never went,” Cloud Kicker said with a raised hoof for a shrug.

“What? But… you lied?? I thought you said you hated lying!”

“No. I said I always try to say the right thing,” Cloud said before smirking at us. “And I think you ponies are onto something. That was the same giant bear. I know it was. I don’t want to deal with that thing a third time.”

“Yeah! Leave us some buildings!” Minuette teased.

“So who’s all going?” It’s a bit of a walk,” Blossomforth asked our group.

“I’ve seen that door every night in my dreams. I need to see it in person,” Carrot explained.

“I’ll help. Are we all going? Berry?” Minuette asked.

All eyes were on me. I already knew Comet Tail was going. I was so tired I really didn’t think I could fight but this was something I could do. I was good at just putting one hoof in front of the other; If I could carry my daughter across Iowa after being stitched back together, I think I could handle a little spelunking. Especially if it could help. I wasn't letting Ruby leaving my side but they could use her in those caves.

“This is such a dangerous idea… but it’s basically my idea,” I said. I looked at my little gem. “Are you going?”

“I’m only going if you’re going,” Ruby responded. I didn’t expect that. I expected her mind to already be decided, not for her to listen to her mother.

And to think, I was going to go if she was going.

I looked at the drying blood in my dirty coat; my coat pocked with ‘stars’ and ‘constellations’. I was sitting on my haunches so I stood back up. My rear legs were basically dead weight at this point. My forelegs had a slight shake to them. I was kind of nauseous from all the noise and light. I had a headache. My sides hurt.

So, basically, it was an average weekend for Brian.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Comet asked me.

“Yeah. Earth ponies are tougher than they look,” I told my best friend.

Seemingly satisfied with that, Comet Tail looked around at us, then at Cloud who was technically running this operation. “Alright then, let’s mosey!”

And that was how I talked my family into going to Tartarus.

Welcome to the end game! I'm glad you made it.

Our heroic leaders are from:

A Flower In CommandGood Griff!Five Score: A Velvet Nightfall

And of course, many more ponies are from previously mentioned stories!
Strawberry Frosting is originally from The Weird Taste of Change which has been removed but she joined the 'Hornverse' through A Gentle Breeze of Change.

The lyrics, altogether:
For Five Score, Divided By Four,
Now returned to our land before!
Even with the lost memories,
And even with the broken lives,
We’re still here for each other
In this fight, our love survives!
We're fathers, we're mothers,
We're daughters, we're brothers!
We are completed by our friends:
United and whole once again!
With every tip of every wing,
With every voice that ever sings,
With our hooves and with our horns!
Lungs of air from where we're born!
From our Five Score curse we rebel,
We deny what fate foretells:
And with our magic and our brawn,
We are the lights until the dawn!
For Five Score Divided By Four,
We were gone, now back at our door!
With all the magic in our bones,
we will defend both of our homes!
From Five Score Divided By Four,
Now standing, together, once more!
For Luna and Celestia!
For our friends and Equestria!
For those here and those far away:
We hold this ground; tonight we stay!

Inspired to have a song after seeing all the lovely singing in A Prench Tale

Minor edits happened on 1/10/2023 to better align with other story's visions of their final battle. The following are the original lines:

“Chaotic,” Vinyl began. “We started getting rid of all the squid things and it was like all hell broke loose: giant bat things, dog things, gremlin-looking whatevers…” A look of disgust overcame her face. “If I never have to see another tentacle ever again it’ll still be too soon.”

I also removed instances of Lazy Bones with Gilda:

It was sent into a spiral as somepony else, larger and stranger-looking with a pony on their back, went for its head.

Gilda passed the word along before physically putting the blue unicorn she flew in with back onto her and taking off with her pegasi.

"Bones! Sunny! Round up the twins!"